Delta variant behind surge in S. Africa’s new Covid cases
A nurse from Lancet Nectare hospital performs a Covid-19 test in Richmond, Johannesburg. The Delta variant, first detected in India, was the major contributor to South Africa's third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Johannesburg
The Delta variant, first detected in India, was the major contributor to South Africa's third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior scientist said on Saturday at a press briefing.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the KwaZulu-Natal Research Innovation and Sequencing Platform (Krisp), said the Delta variant appeared to be dominating the new infections recorded in the country.
"This is the variant that caused, initially, a massive epidemic in India and seems to increase very fast in frequency and dominating the infections in South Africa," he said.
"In the more recent data that we did in the community transmission in KZN, it completely took over."
More transmissible
Oliveira said the Delta variant is more transmissible than the Beta variant.
"We are in the third wave. We continue to see the numbers repeatedly rising and the number of these infections continue to rise and Gauteng continues to be the epicentre of these new infections," said Acting Health Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi at the press briefing.
In the last 24 hours, there were 18,762 new cases which represent a 25.5 per cent positivity testing rate. Of this, Gauteng accounts for 11,777 new cases.
Kubayi believed that it is now likely that the peak of the third wave would surpass that of the second wave in January when more than 21,000 new cases were recorded daily.
"We remain very worried about the rise in hospitalisation which is putting a lot of strain on the health facilities in Gauteng," she added.
